January 2024 -- I regret I will no longer be taking custom orders, but I am very excited to follow my muse. With time and freedom to do the things I know and love to do, I am confident I will be presenting the best work of my career. I look forward to using woods in the way I find best. I look forward to having adequate time to allow finish to cure. I look forward to making schedules based on efficiency so I can pursue some of life's little pleasures without guilt. I still enjoy fellow humans, so feel free to call about what is coming up or to ask about anything you find listed here. Check back frequently for guitars as they are posted. 310-522-9596
310-522-9596
COCOBOLO ADIRONDACK MODEL F
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Killer Cocobolo Rosewood
Fine Adirondack Spruce Top
Ebony bindings and bevel
Black, White and Maple purflings
Micro bevel at the cutaway
Paua abalone rosette
16" lower bout
25.4" scale length
Nut: 1 25/32"
String Spacing: 2 5/16"
Gold/Ebonoid Gotoh 510s
Flight Case (Call)
This is a great guitar and received a lot of praise at the Woodstock Show. It's a lap piano with a solid bass tone that reminds me not just of a piano, but of a very specific piano from the recital hall at a local college. That piano was always one of my favorites both to play and to listen to in recitals. The trebles are pure and round with strong fundamentals and present but tame overtones.
This guitar has my usual neck with a relaxed right hand and modified oval neck carve. The Adirondack top is clear and beautifully grained with solid sustain. The colobolo is some of my best stash.
I could try to describe the tone, but a good recording is worth more than words. After long years of friendship and mutual respect, it occurred to me I was missing a chance to show my guitars in their best light. Pete Bradshaw has graciously agreed to demo guitars as they become available. Please subscribe!
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Beautiful Black Ebony
Master German Spruce Top
Ebony bindings and bevel
Black, White purfling
Micro bevel at the cutaway
Black Mother of Pearl Jimmi rosette
15" lower bout
25.4" scale length
Nut: 1 25/32"
String Spacing: 2 5/16"
Cosmo Black with Ebonoid buttons Gotoh 510s
Flight Case (Call)
This guitar features small sound ports in the top of the guitar. Now, before you worry about whether the girl knows what she's doing, or not, I do. Where they are positioned, they have zero effect on the structure of the guitar.
As for the tone, this is exciting! With all ports open, it sounds like a ported guitar, but much more refined. Ports make tone more "coarse" to my ears, which is my main objection to them in general. This placement gives a little boost to the treble and diminution of compression that people seem to like about ports. You can hear the difference from the player's position, but it does not boost the volume to the same extent to the player's ear. I don't find that to be a problem, I prefer to know what people are hearing from the other side of the guitar is close to what I'm hearing.
The amazing and generous Pete Bradshaw did something like 20 recordings with various combinations of open and closed ports. We used corks to do it. (Some attendees of previous Healdsburg Guitar Festivals my remember the experiment by Alan Carruth with corks and ports all on the side of the guitar.)
What the recordings showed is that, kind of obviously, there was the most difference between completely blocked ports and completely open ports. My favorite in the recording is to leave one port open, but not the largest one.
You will be able to continue the experiment if desired, or I will veneer the back of the ports that I choose. If you take the guitar and find that you have a definite favorite, and you want it made permanent, I can make the change at any time.
The beautiful black burst is by Addam Stark, and I do believe he does the most tasteful bursts in the community. It shimmers in black with purple and blue and brown in the changing light. The ebony is very black with some lighter grain lines that popped with the studio light, but are hard to see in normal light.
This guitar has my usual neck with a relaxed right hand and modified oval neck carve. The German spruce top has the warmth and bloom that we expect of a good German top.
Previously Sold I know it's mean to tease, but I hate getting rid of nice pictures!
Maddy Sunshine Model E
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Unbelievable Madagascar Rosewood
Fine German Spruce Top
Ebony bindings and bevel
Black, White and fine red purflings
Micro bevel at the cutaway
Dyed maple fingerboard inlay with paua abalone dots
Paua abalone rosette
Lightly tinted
15" lower bout
25.4" scale length
Nut: 1 25/32"
String Spacing: 2 3/8"
Gold/Ebonoid Gotoh 510s
Hoffee carbon fiber flight case in red to match the theme
This is a really good guitar. The tone is warm and round and developing nicely. It has a relaxed right hand with a modified oval neck carve. The German spruce top is about as flawless as I've seen and the Madagascar is to die for. I've had very few sets like this in my career, they don't come along very often.
There's a story. There are often stories when a builder takes the time to build a guitar that isn't preordered.
I lost my beloved dog Maddie in June 2022. There is a video on my Facebook page. My dogs come up frequently in my workshop pictures. Maddie even ended up in Acoustic Guitar Magazine! Her favorite days were work days, chilling under a workbench, chawing on a bully stick. Any other day spent at home, she might be anywhere, but on shop days, she was always right there with me.
In the weeks following the loss of her, I let myself wallow. I made the video, I tried my hand at colored pencil (it actually came out okay... but it's still bad art). After that, I really needed something sunny and happy to think about. The inlay is just a happy little squiggle with one Easter egg: seven little suns for her brief seven years.
I spelled Maddie's name with all the girly letters, and I've always nicknamed the wood with a Y. Over time the reason for the inlay will fade, and being made of dyed maple, the inlay will mellow and fade as well. Time is a good thing, especially for guitars. Especially for this story.
I have paired it with a deep and gorgeous red Hoffee flight case. I think it looks great. If you don't like that idea, I have other choices on hand.
Cocobolo binding and bevels with black and white top purfling
Jimmi's paua abalone rosette
25.4" scale length
Nut: 1 23/32"
String Spacing: For 2 1/4 guitar strings"
Gold/Ebonoid Gotoh 510s
Custom-built light case, box style with heavy duty straps and wheels. Custom padded and lined.
CURRENTLY UNDER REPAIR. This poor baby got damaged during shipment. It's not fatal, the body is okay. The harp head got damaged, but it can be reworked without any structural issues at all, it's all cosmetic. The neck has to be repaired at the heel, also, able to be made better than new, but will probably require some bursting. Discounts will apply. Seriously, only you will know that anything had ever happened. The guitar will be perfect, look perfect.
This is the largest bodied harp guitar I make. The waist is high and deep for comfort, the sound is stunning. The harp head and headstocks have the tuners all in a line for easy locating and placement witout having to go to a slotted head design. (I'm pretty proud of this one.) If you've never played harp guitar, I can't tell you it's easy, but I can tell you, once you wrap your mind around it, you won't go back. Most people don't if they give it a chance.
Beautiful, straight, richly colored cocobolo rosewood back and sides.
A tonal MONSTER.
Previously exhibited, but carefully guarded, this guitar received first place at the Designs in Wood Exhibit in May 2018. The private emails from the event managers well more than complimentary.
This guitar has amazing capabilities. I have tried it tuned from everything from baritone B to standard. It will come strung for standard tuning, but we can discuss suggestions I might have for stringing for other tunings. The shorter treble allows for all the baritone benefits without quite the handful of neck.
As long as you don't look, the slant of the nut feels very familiar. The nut slant is an ergonomic advantage unless you are a thumb over player. If so, you will need a big reach.
The tone is impressive. It's powerful and refined, beautifully balanced. If you can deal with the added real estate, it's worth it. I have smallish hands, which I make up for in decent technique, but I find it quite comfortable and manageable.
This is one of the most amazing instruments I've had the pleasure to build. The wood was an accident. I accidentally bought it when I had no business risking so much on such non-instrument wood. All ebnoies are good for tone, but Black White Ebony is impossibly unstable. I seasoned it for a very long time and patiently waited for it to stablize, and then got lucky. Very lucky.
The 7 subs, Italian top, and defined but not overly powerful bass characterisitcs of the ebony made for a nicely balanced package.
Rounded wide comfort bindings for right arm, chest, and support leg
This is the first Kathy Wingert Harp Requinto. Gregg Miner put out the word that he was rounding up the "what's what" on current builders of smaller harp instruments. That gave me the shove I needed to use some too-small-for-harp guitar woods that I had saved. As he has in the past, Gregg kindly offered examples of historic instruments to examine.
The scale length of just over 21 inches is like a normal guitar capoed at the third fret. The short scale and compact body make it a very accessible instrument. Because of the harp arm and some other tricks, the instrument has a tremendous capacity for its lower registers. It's very happy with standard tuning, Terz or Alt tuning (low string starting on G). Tuned to F#, like a guitar capoed on the 2nd fret, the sub basses would play easily in concert D and A, common keys for a lot of traditional music. For solo? Who cares what key it's really playing in! This is shaping up to be a very versatile instrument. Gregg commented that the tone and sustain of the notes north of the 12th fret were impossibly good.
Ebony binding with black mother of pearl top purfling
Special black rosette with black MOP inlay design
Calton Case
25.4" scale length
Nut: 1 25/32"
String Spacing: 2 1/4"
Cosmo black Gotoh 510s
This guitar "Sonic Sitka #2 out of 111" is part of a community project with 110 other participating luthiers. The top has an amazing combination of what we like best about Sitka -- punch and fundamental, but it's wrapped in a nice amount of overtone more after the fashion of European spruce. The characteristic Sitka attack sound is there, but shows itself more when you really hit it, so it's a guitar with a lot of dynamic variation and personality. Those aren't code words for something else, it's smooth and it's consistent and predictable, completely controllable, but the sonic variations are really cool. Read here for a wonderful breakdown of the project by Acoustic Guitar Magazine - Sonic Sitka Project explained.
January 2024 -- I regret I will no longer be taking custom orders, but I am very excited to follow my muse. With time and freedom to do the things I know and love to do, I am confident I will be presenting the best work of my career. I look forward to using woods in the way I find best. I look forward to having adequate time to allow finish to cure. I look forward to making schedules based on efficiency so I can pursue some of life's little pleasures without guilt. I still enjoy fellow humans, so feel free to call about what is coming up or to ask about anything you find listed here. Check back frequently for guitars as they are posted. 310-522-9596
